• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권1호
• /
• pp.43-56
• /
• 2018

Religion and new media are two important factors in contemporary Middle Eastern societies. Media is seen as a relatively newcomer while religion has been and remains an old and core component of the fabric of societies in this region. This article is an attempt to examine the encounter of these two phenomena in the Middle East. It will try to explore the variety of ways by which new media have served religion both positively and negatively, and how religion has taken position for and against media in Middle Eastern countries in general and in the Iranian case in particular. It is also the purpose of this article to look at the different aspects of this relationship between media and religion, analyzing how one affected the other, and how this interaction affected society. It is argued that the outcome of the interaction between religion and media has had a great impact on shaping the social and political culture of the countries in this region including Iran. The dimensions of this impact will determine the outcome of the clash between modernity and tradition in the region.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권1호
• /
• pp.57-83
• /
• 2018

Historians describe the early years of the 20th century as a period of "nationalism." During this period, Turkish nationalism transformed into a thought movement which emerged to defend Turkish national sovereignty during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Approaches towards nationalism in Turkey are based on the idea of national sovereignty and the ideas of national independence that developed subsequently. Nationalism in Turkey first transformed from Pan-Islamism into multinational Ottomanism, and finally developed into Turkish nationalism and patriotism. This process emerged as a movement of self-discovery in the multicultural structure of the Ottoman Empire and transformed into Turkism. The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) destroyed the foundation upon which Ottomanism was based, and led to the rise of Turkish nationalism, in other words, Turkism. The idea of nation in modern terms in the recent history of thought and nationalism subsequently developed based on this idea and emerged with the Turkism movement. Thus, Turkism became the movement of Turks in the empire, combined with political Turkism which was supported by the intellectuals who came to the Ottoman Empire from Russia. In this article, the formation of Turkist movements and the leading intellectuals of Turkish nationalism, who emerged at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century in the Ottoman Empire, are investigated in order to examine the historical progress of nationalist approaches in a period in which a new national state was established and improved.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권1호
• /
• pp.85-102
• /
• 2018

This study aims to contrast phonological characteristics of Korean and Turkish in terms of language universality. Considering consonants, both languages have the same number of consonants (21), which is the most typologically plausible structure of consonants. Thus, it can be said that they display high universality in the number of consonants. However, Turkish shows higher universality in regards to their substance, i.e., it differs from Korean when it comes to the structure of plosives and affricates. Turkish has two contrastive consonants, i.e., voiced and voiceless. However, the Korean plosives and affricates consist of neutral, tense and aspirate voiceless. In the case of vowels, both Korean with 10 vowels and Turkish with 8 vowels show lower universality. Yet, all of those vowels belong to the list of the most plausible vowels which makes their universality higher in substance. In respect of the syllable structure, Korean with its (C)V(C) type shows a moderately complex structure while Turkish with its (C)V(C)(C) type has a complex structure. The coda may consist of two consonants in Turkish while only one consonant is possible in Korean. However, onset is composed of one consonant in both languages. The contrastive study of similarities and differences between Korean and Turkish in terms of phonological characteristics will help not only understand the two languages but also provide useful information to increase the efficacy of Korean language education for Turkish learners of Korean, whose number is rapidly increasing.

• 한국염색가공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국염색가공학회 2011년도 제45차 학술발표회
• /
• pp.23-23
• /
• 2011

신라는 유잠국을 거쳐 새로운 비단이라는 신라(新羅)로 국호를 변경한다. 신라 뽕나무와 비단의 행방을 �O는다면 실크로드의 출발점이 한반도의 신라의 땅이라는 추정에 의거하여 1995년부터 조사를 하였다. 특히 삼국사기의 내용을 기초로 하여 한반도의 지명을 방문하여 조사하는 과정에서 삼국사기의 내용이 전혀 한반도에는 정확하게 일치하지 않는다는 사실을 확인하였다. 1. 신라는 한반도에 없었다. 최근 한학자이신 이중재님이 발표한 논문과 책자를 기초로 조사 검정을 하는 중에 고구려, 신라 백제가 한반도에 없었다는 사실을 확인 하였다. 2. 중국고금지명대사전(1931)을 중국 청도에서 섬유공장장으로 근무하는 정윤화친구의 도움으로 구입하여 이중재의 책의 내용을 검정하였다. 그러므로 신라의 비단과 양잠을 한반도에서 확인하는 것은 잘못된 사실이라는 것을 확인하였다. 3. 삼국사기의 내용을 중국고금지명사전을 이용하여 확인한 결과 그동안 의문으로 되어 있는 임라설, 가야설, 고구려 신라 백제의 강역, 문익점 선생의 최초의 목화에 대한 사실 등 모든 사실을 잘못된 내용이라는 것을 확인 검정하였고, 현재의 한반도의 역사는 식민주의 역사학자들이 한반도의 역사를 왜곡한 사실을 확인하였다. 4. 한반도에서는 고려시대 이전에는 나라 형태의 국가는 없었고, 조선시대부터 국가의 형태가 성립되었다.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.125-146
• /
• 2019

This paper deals with the question of the origin of polo. Although it is a sport that has been mainly active in the West since the nineteenthcentury, it is well known that British troops in the northern part of Pakistan learned about the sport from the local people there. Most agree that the origin of polo is Iran. However, in this paper, rather than specifying a specific area as the birthplace of polo, it is argued that polo was a cultural phenomenon commonly found on the Silk Road. This is based on the fact that polo has been known for centuries in China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, as well as throughout Iran, northern India, Tibet, Central Asia, and the Uighur Autonomous Region. Yet, the transmission of polo cannot be traced chronologically according to the supposed propagation route. This cultural phenomenon has changed over a long period of time according to the local environment, and the change was caused by mutual exchanges, not by one party. Therefore, there are limitations to interpreting cultural phenomena linearly. Thus, the origin of polo could also be identified with another area, namely Baltistan in modern day Pakistan, instead of Iran. These results support the argument that to understand Silk Road civilization, a process-centric approach based on 'exchanges', not a method of exploring archetypes to find 'the place of origin', should be utilized. Polo is undoubtedly an important cultural artifact with which to read the Silk Road as a cultural belt complex, as well as an example of the common culture created by the whole Silk Road.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.1-24
• /
• 2019

Bloody wars between Arab Muslims and Khazar Turks in the Caucasus continued for a more than a hundred years from the mid $7^{th}$ century to the end of the $8^{th}$ century CE. The Khazar state survived but had to withdraw from Caucasian Albania, the present territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. However, the Khazars managed to expand their political control over the trade routes north-east and north-west of the Caucasian ridge. A trade partnership was established between former rival powers in the region that allows us to call the period after the end of the Arab-Khazar wars up to the time of the collapse of the Khazar state in the middle of the 10th century an era of Arab-Khazar partnership and domination of the Silk Road. This article highlights the impact made by geopolitical shifts in the regions of the time upon international trade tracks and particularly on the development of trade facilities, infrastructure, and local production in Azerbaijan, which became a major transit country of goods from the north to markets in the Muslim Near East.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권2호
• /
• pp.23-48
• /
• 2018

The Silk Road usually implies a network of trade and communications that stretched from east to west and connected China and the countries of the Far East via Central Asia and the Middle East to the eastern Mediterranean, or through the northern coast of the Caspian Sea and the Volga basin to the Black Sea coast. However, at certain historical stages, a network of maritime and overland routes stretching from north to south, commonly called the Volga-Caspian trade route, also played a significant role in international trade and cultural contacts. The geopolitical realities of the early Middle Ages relating to the relationship of Byzantium, the Sassanid Empire, and the West Turkic Khaganate, the advance of the Arab Caliphate to the north, the spread of Islam in the Volga region, the glories and fall of the Khazar State, and the Scandinavian campaigns in the Caucasus, closely intertwined with the history of transport and communications connecting the north and south through the Volga-Caspian route. In a later era, the interests of the Mongolian Uluses, and then the political and economic aspirations of the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid State, and Russia, collided or combined on these routes. The article discusses trade contacts existing between the north and the south in the 15th and first half of the 17th century along the routes on the western coast of the Caspian Sea.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권2호
• /
• pp.73-90
• /
• 2018

The Silk Road tied the globe together for the first time by producing an early globalization phenomenon. Some consider that the ancient Silk Road disintegrated around the $18^{th}$ century CE due to the fall of the Muslim empires and the kingdoms between Asia and Europe. However, the maritime trade among East Asia and the Spanish dominion on the American continent reactivated the ancient Silk Road on some levels, and maintained trade dynamics until the $19^{th}$ century. This was possible because of Mexican silver and trade spots. Notwithstanding its historical background, Mexico seems so far away from the new Silk Road, or the Belt and Road Initiative in the $21^{st}$ century. Thus, this paper analyzes Mexico's historic and current role concerning the Silk Road. First, I conceptualize and compare the ancient Silk Road and Belt and Road Initiative through the lens of complex interdependence theory. I propose that, unlike the ancient Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative is a case of an induced complex interdependence. Second, I study the Manila Galleons' dynamics in order to trace the ancient ties with the Silk Road. I emphasize Mexican silver's contribution to East Asian economies and the importance of Mexico's role in the East Asia-Spanish trade. Consequently, I analyze Mexico's position in the Belt and Road Initiative. Finally, I present some concluding remarks about Mexico's role in the Silk Road.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권2호
• /
• pp.107-134
• /
• 2018

This paper is an art historical attempt to discuss the transfer and transmission of a certain visual idiom along the Silk Roads and to show the multi-dimensionality of the trans-regional, trans-cultural movement. The motifs of grapes and grapevines are discussed here for this purpose, including the grape-and-vine motif mixed with other animated figures and plants. A special emphasis is on China and its reception, but regional varieties within East Asia are also discussed. The motif is one of the most longstanding and versatile visual idioms, widely distributed along the regions of the Silk Roads. This deceptively familiar motif came to China, where grapes and viticulture were introduced far later than the West. The West developed various symbolisms ranging from manic revelry and heavenly unity with mystic beings, to royalty and power in different cultures. In China, this visual idiom was eagerly received in association with something exotic and re-interpreted in the context of Chinese culture. Without active viticulture, the motif transformed itself into beautiful design patterns and space fillers in China and East Asia. The natural appeal of jewel-like grapes acquired new meanings of fertility and happiness in the traditional East Asian cultural context. To see the cultural effect of viticulture on the visualization of this motif, the Islamic reception of the motif is briefly touched upon when countries to the West of China (서역 西域) were fully Islamized and heavily affected by the prohibition of alcoholic drinking.

• Acta Via Serica
• /
• 제3권2호
• /
• pp.135-150
• /
• 2018

Ali Bey $H{\ddot{u}}seyinzade$ (1864-1940) was one of the most significant Azerbaijani Turkish intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, formulating Azerbaijani national identity around its Turkish, Islamic and territorial dimensions. His solution to the ambiguities of the identity crisis among the Turkic-Muslim people of Azerbaijan was Turkification, Islamization and Europeanization for the Turkic and Muslim peoples of the Caucasus and Ottoman Turkey. Ali Bey $H{\ddot{u}}seyinzade$ was an influential Azerbaijani Turkish intellectual who had a direct impact on Turkish nationalists in the late Ottoman Empire and early Republican Turkey. $H{\ddot{u}}seyinzade^{\prime}s$ formulation of the triple processes of Turkification, Islamization and Europeanization spread among the Azerbaijani and Ottoman Turkish intellectuals in their respective countries. This article aims to discuss the ideas of Ali Bey $H{\ddot{u}}seyinzade$, especially regarding nationality, religion and Westernism and their impact on intellectuals and policy makers in the Caucasus and Turkey. His physical odyssey from Tsarist Russia into the Ottoman Empire is indicative of his ideological proclivities and his subsequent influence on the Turkish-speaking peoples in the two major empires in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.